This invention relates to electro-optical detection of projectiles and, more particularly, to such detection utilizing wavelengths in the visible to near-infrared (NIR) range.
There is a pressing need for lower cost missile warning systems (MWS) to protect aircraft from air-to-air missiles and surface-to-air missiles. Man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS), e.g., shoulder-fired missiles, are very effective weapons and have been widely proliferated. MANPADs, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and mortars are used in conventional warfare. They are also used in unconventional warfare, such as guerilla warfare or terrorist activities. One example of MANPADS used against a civilian target was the December 2002 terrorist attack on a civilian airliner in Kenya. MANPADS have been proliferated widely to third-world countries and terrorists. The Russian-built SA-7, SA-14, SA-16 and SA-18 missiles, for example, are readily available through the Russian black market and through the cash-poor countries of the former Soviet Union. As these threats are further proliferated, there will be a continued increase in loss of life and aircraft.
Terrorists are using MANPADS to attack civilian aircraft and military aircraft operating out of commercial airports in urban areas, so there is a need for systems capable of operating in high-clutter urban environments. The design problem is made more difficult by the need to provide technologically advanced alternatives at a low cost; preferably the cost would be low enough to allow missile warning systems to be placed onboard all assets as opposed to high value assets.